Lessons from Deanne Fitzmaurice on The Importance of Engaging with Subjects

For over 13 years, Deanne Fitzmaurice has been photographing Saleh, an Iraqi boy who was severely injured in a grenade explosion at age nine.

“I was around Saleh and his dad so much that they just forgot about me,” Fitzmaurice says. “What it taught me is that you have to build trust, build relationships, and then back off and capture moments that say something.”

One important question has come up consistently throughout Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Deanne Fitzmaurice’s career: Can she remain objective while engaging with her subjects? “I come from a newspaper background which has a really strict policy about not getting involved with subjects—you could get fired.

It’s all about credibility and our photographs being believable,” the photographer and Nikon ambassador told the audience at PhotoPlus Expo during her presentation, “Honest Photography: Learning from a Long-Term Pulitzer Winning Project.” However, “As time went on and I got more involved in the …